cloth trade of the North, and who, towards the close of the eighteenth
century, were represented by four brothers whose firm had secured a
monopoly of that trade between England and Russia.

These brothers, by reason of their wealth and influence, were received on
terms of intimacy by the older county families. They built themselves each
a substantial house in Wakefield, fashioned out of bricks which they
manufactured and timber which they had imported from Russia, with which
country they were naturally in constant communication in the course of
their business. These houses, which stood close together, facing the main
road through Wakefield, were handsome in construction and luxuriously
furnished; but, by and by, two branches of the family migrated from the
town of their birth; James Milnes built Thornes House, and Richard Slater
Milnes purchased the estate of Fryston, where he took up his residence
about 1790. His new possession was a larger and more comfortable home than
the dwelling he had quitted, and although standing in the centre of the
great West Riding industries, it was beautifully situated on the banks of
the river Aire. Besides extensive gardens and shrubberies, it was
surrounded by a fine park, while adjoining it were miles of beautiful
larch and beech woods. On the death of Richard Slater Milnes it passed
into the possession of his son, Robert Pemberton, who with his brother,
Richard Rodes, were the only two sons in a family of nine children.

The brothers, in some particulars, presented a marked contrast to each
other, though both were fascinating and clever.

Robert Pemberton was extremely eccentric, but brilliant. He was recognised
to be full of promise, and it was anticipated that he would one day make a
considerable stir in the political world. Writing of him many years later,
John Stanhope mentioned the following anecdotes:--